* WALKING INTO DANGER [adam]

[madeline]

Acting and singing was probably Maddie's two favorite things in the whole world. It was pretty much where she dedicated her whole life to, and a lot of people got irritated by it. However, now was time to prepare for the school play which - to her dismay, was A Midsummer Nights Dream. Another Shakespeare play and while she loved the man, they seemed to do it every year. She couldn't figure out why the play committee couldn't come up with something different. She hoped in the next year to get her input in, but nobody wanted to listen to a tenth grader, right? It was kind of pathetic, but she wanted to have her voice heard.

She had gotten the part of Hermia, which was the part she was going after anyways. She always liked to be in the spotlight, and that would certainly present her with that. And Adam had gotten the part of Lysander - which, in the new script meant that they where going to have to kiss on stage. It wasn't nessicaraly awkward - well, actually it would be. But she had talked him into joining the play, so that was that. Today, however, they where going to be running lines together. It was evening and her older brother had dropped her off, and she had brought her script with her. It was warm, so she was just wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top. Summer was here once again.

"So where should we start Adam?" Maddie asked once they where settled, sitting on the edge of his bed. She was strumming her fingers on the script book on her lap and glancing around. She wasn't nervous, persay, but there was one part that she was a bit anxious about. She didn't want to bring up that they should practice the kiss, but the yearning desire to kiss him was definitely there. Why would't it be? He was hot. It was like a gene that ran in the family. "You uh, you've got a nice room." She said, smiling at him a little bit, brushing a strand of her long brown hair behind her ear. After a minute she leaned back on her arms and sighed. "Yeah, we've got a lot of lines to run through."

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[ADAM EVAN RIZZO]

Why did he volunteer to do this again? It was not that he didn't like plays; in fact, Adam secretly enjoyed anything to do with fine literature and works of written art. They were enthralling and he personally spent more time doing his English homework than anything else school-related. In some ways he tried to play off being stupid, like he did not know as much about literature as other people did, but in the end he felt confident that his classmates were no where near at the level of knowledge he was with language arts. Maybe he was just over-confident and egotistical, which was pretty much true. It actually surprised him when he found out he managed to get the lead role of Lysander. Not that he half assed his audition but Adam did not strive to be the shining light of performing arts either. It's just a highschool play. He reminded himself.

So there he sat on the edge of his bed with his lead lady sitting next to him. Madeline managed to get the role of Hermia. This only meant one thing and personally Adam was not quite sure what to do with it despite his outward stoicism on the matter. It required a kiss. Not that kissing girls was bad but he knew what happened when you kissed your friends. Mona was a prime example. The memory was hazy and he did not remember everything but kissing his best friend definitely came to the forefront of his mind. At least they never brought it up. Now, here he was with Madeline, working on a play in which their characters wound up locking lips. He was unsure of how to bring all of it up with some sense of maturity, so opted for being his usual self.

"We can always start with the kiss," Adam offered, wiggling his eyebrows and smirking at her. Awkward as it might be he was not about to say something about it. "I mean, it's bound to happen eventually anyway. Gotta practice and all that good shit right? Gotta make sure it's dramatic and believable." The guy was a bit of a drama queen anyway so that would not be entirely difficult, not to mention he was a guy and kissing a pretty girl was not exactly a bad thing. He knew that they should start at the beginning and work their way towards it; Adam was merely being a troll, like always. He scoffed and glanced around the room with her. "Yeah it's pretty decent I guess. At least my ass of a brother doesn't bother me a lot, and my mom usually steers clear when the door is shut." Sometimes privacy didn't exist in their family and that was annoying, but the only options he felt he had were to yell and cuss and be obnoxious. It usually worked. Adam scooted back on the bed and crossed his legs, setting the book in his lap. "Yeah, a fuck ton. Remind me why I volunteered to do this again?"

[madeline]

Maddie was actually pretty surprised by how well Adam had done at his audition. Not that she didn't think he had it in him, but by the fact that he acted like he had been acting for a long time - when she was pretty sure he hadn't. She didn't know for sure - but she was sure he would have mentioned it. Or she would have seen him amungst her extensive theatre classes and what not.

At his suggestion she smirked a little bit. "Not a bad idea." She said, the smirk still on her lips as she glanced down at the script on her lap. "Definitely want it to be belivable. I mean, we're supposed to be two star stuck kids in love right?" She said, looking up at him again and raising an eyebrow. What was so unbelivable about that? A good actor could pretend anything. Plus, they where friends at least, not like they where total strangers. Eventually they could get through the actual speaking parts of the script. "Might have to run through it more than once. You know, to make sure we got it down well." She had a bit of a flirty side, it just wasn't her most dominant side. But how could she not be with him?

Family interruptions where something she knew quite well. Her elder brother watcher over her like a hawk all the time. He was rather over protective, but that was probably because he was her guardian. She hated living with her parents, so that was why she had moved in with her brother into Maple Hollow. "Guess there is always a plus about having a door on your room, right? Helps out with the uh... sexcapades as well." She said, glancing up at him, grinning. She remembered their word that they had etched out onto the cliffs. She wondered idly if it was still there, or if something had eroded it away. Maddie flopped back onto his bed and folded her arms behind her head, looking up at the ceiling before glancing over at him. "Because I told you there would be a kissing scene. Or does big bad Adam Rizzo actually enjoy acting?" She said, wiggling her eyebrows at him.

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[ADAM EVAN RIZZO]

There was a bit of a confident gleam in his eyes as he watched her, knowing full well that his idea was brilliant, if not typical Adam thought process and behavior. Typical guy behavior too. Kissing girls was a fun thing to do and so in his mind the suggestion made perfect sense. "No, it's an excellent idea," Adam corrected her, waving his finger in her directly. "All of my ideas are pretty damn amazing." Like the one that landed him with scars on his face from the dog attack. Yeah, total genius. He blinked, taking in the words before offering a small scoff of disapproval. "Yeah, right. Love is stupid. Hell, sometimes I wonder if it even exists." Considering the fact that he was only fourteen and had yet to even fully live his life a lot of his comments were founded on lack of experience. The kid's mind was not even trained on that particular idea right now.

"But we definitely have to make it believable, for sure. I don't mind running through the scene a couple of times to make sure we do it right." He smirked, his dark eyes sparkling with mischief. Practice makes perfect. If they wanted the whole audience to believe that it was real they needed to make sure the kiss didn't look like two seals fighting over a grape. The image amused him and he chuckled.

Family. Although Adam loved Molly and Asher infinitely there were always hiccups and bumps along the way. Some days he could not stand them and others he was able to completely let down his guard and enjoy being around them without making snide comments or grunting ninety-five percent of his responses. Those were rare, but they existed. He lifted his eyebrows up a couple of times at her sexcapades comment and laughed. "Damn straight. Gotta make sure I can have my privacy and all that. Can't have people walking in and ruining a perfectly good lay, right?" He talked big but the kid was far from experienced. Only one sexual encounter so far, and even then he wondered if it should count. Well he supposed by sex standards he was no longer a virgin, at least. "I even have a 'do not disturb' sign I like to put on my door, just in case." Oddly enough he did have one, but it was used when he wanted his family to screw off. Adam quickly tossed his hands up in her direction and shook them back and forth. "No no no, Adam Rizzo doesn't enjoy acting. That's bullshit. It's all about the kissing scene. You know that." He poked her arm for emphasis. It was awkward, he thought, that the kissing scene would be with the person who encouraged his joining the play in the first place.

[madeline]

She knew how males worked. At least she liked to think she did. They wanted one thing from girls usually, but usually a good make out session would suffice. Maddie wasn't much different in that aspect. She liked being touched, and wasn't opposed to making out. She was a teenager after all. She smirked and rolled her eyes at him. "Oh I'm sure you've had one or two bad ideas in your life time, Rizzo." She said, tilting her head a little bit and glancing over at him. After his comment she nodded briefly, biting her lip for a second. "Oh yeah I completely agree with you there. But that's why it's called acting."

Maddie smirked back at him a little bit, her eyes holding a bit of that same mischiefous glint in them as she looked at him for a minute. Right now they sounded more like two horny teenagers than actors. "Perfect. I guess we have our work cut out for us then." She said, smiling and biting her lip. She wasn't thinking of the consequences. The down sides to it. That could end up making things awkward, and she certainly didn't want to ruin a friendship with Adam, but she couldn't deny that she wanted to. After all, they where going to have to now. For the play, anyways.

Maddie preferred living with her brother over her parents though. He did allot her more freedom to pursue her dreams. She was going to be an actress. A star on broad way. Break past the every day grind that everybody seemed to fall into after school. She had big dreams and knew that someday she was going to make them come true. Most people thought she was crazy for beliving that but she knew someday she would be a star. She laughed a little louder than intended and shook her head. "That would be a damn shame." She figured that he was not as sexually active as he brought on to be. She just didn't see that. But, she wasn't going to dig into his sex life. She didn't really care - well, not enough to upset him by getting the truth out of him anyways.

"Ohh that is a good idea. Maybe I should get one of those. Or my brother can just learn to knock." She rolled her eyes a bit. He had the feeling that everytime her door was closed she had somebody in there. She was a flirt, a bit of a relentless one, but she wasn't a whore. Well, not in the having sex all the time sense. "You know, Adam. It's not a shame to like acting." She said, her voice quiet in a I know what you're hiding kind of way, although she really didn't. She was mostly joking, she had no idea about his secret afflixion with Shakespeare. She sat up and scooted over closer to him, so that her leg was touching his, and locked her brown eyes on his. "So. About that kiss..."

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[ADAM EVAN RIZZO]

Adam withdrew his head and appeared to be offended, the crease between his brows deepening ever so slightly. It did not take much to make him look angry; his neutral expression always seemed to be a scowl. "No I haven't. I don't know what the hell you're talking about. Like I said before, they're all amazing." Even Adam knew that he was merely blowing hot air but there was no point in admitting he had faults. Why do that when everyone knew that no one was perfect? People could think and feel what they wanted about him. He raised an eyebrow. "Exactly. So love is all an act." Set the stage, draw back the curtains, and watch the scenes unfold. People pretended to be in love every day so to Adam felt his comment was quite well founded. Did anyone even believe the stories in those mushy romance movies? He hoped not.

"Yeah, seems that way," He replied, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. He could talk the talk all day, pretend like kissing his friend was no where near awkward, but it was all a rouse. Would he back down from it and start acting nervous? No. Adam didn't like to portray feeling nervous or weak.

Although Adam liked to roll his eyes and complain about his family, he knew that they were not nearly as bad as he made them out to be. Molly was not overly nosy--though he had to admit she was just nosy enough for him to get upset--and Asher normally kept to himself unless it dealt with a family matter. If he spoke out against his mother, his older brother would not hesitate to fight with him. "Right? It would ruin everything. Nothing worse than a fucked up mood. The girls hate that." He sighed, exasperated that he could not have the privacy needed for some sexual fix. Inwardly the boy amused himself with how often he played up being some sort of man whore. "Knocking? I don't think anyone knows what that is. Like...it doesn't exist or something." His hands waved around sporadically to express his irritation. People needed to learn about personal space. Could he not play his video games and be a typical teenage guy in peace? Of course not.

The sudden change in Madeline's voice somewhat struck Adam silent, but he quickly redeemed himself with, "I'm not ashamed of anything." The reply was quick and curt, and albeit a bit angry even though it was not necessary. He hated anyone assuming that he was ashamed of himself or any aspect of his interests, even though he was in this aspect. He was one big contradiction wrapped up in anger and topped with a scowl. His expression switched subconsciously when Madeline moved closer to him, leg brushing against his. Hormones clouded his judgement for a moment. "Uhh..." What was he saying again? Something about something. He watched her for a minute and glanced down at her lips before finding her eyes again. "We gotta get in character first, dumbass," He said, smirk twitching briefly on his lips. "That's how you're supposed to do it. I thought you knew all this shit." It was his way to help ease him into the kiss more than anything. No matter what his smile and dark eyes told Madeline, he still felt apprehensive about jumping into a kiss with his friend.

[madeline]

Adams grumpy face wasn't something she was unacustomed to. It wasn't much off from his normal face. So when he faked it she couldn't help but stick out her bottom lip like she was pouting. She much rather would see him smile. Even if he didn't do it all the time he actually had a really nice smile. She liked it when she knew she was the one who could make him smile. She couldn't help but roll her eyes at his comment. "Right I forgot. Adam Rizzo never has had a single bad idea in his entire life." It sounded ridiculous saying it, but she was just playing along with the joke. It was pretty obvious that she was joking becuse really, nobody could have perfect ideas all the time right? Maybe they where just good ideas with poor consequences. "Hollywood does a pretty decent job at making it seem real though." She said, nonchalantly as she shrugged her shoulders a bit. It was true though, Hollywood was good for something. Although, she perfered stage acting over anything else.

Maddie's emotions never really got the best of her. In fact, she probably had less emotions than a lot of people. She was good at finding them when she was on stage, but that was why she was an actress. She was only at home and comfortable when she was performing. She could be anybody she wanted to be, and that was what she wanted. Surprisingly, she really wasn't a drama queen off the stage. She hated drama and did her best to stay out of it. But she was a bit nervous about kissing Adam. Not because she didn't want to, but because he was her friend. She didn't want to fuck things up. But, the girl was a flirt, so that was the persona she resorted back to as default. Act like you didn't care and nothing could go wrong right? "Oh I'm sure they do. No angry sex?" She said, tilting her head to the side and smirking a bit. "Knocking is a myth, you know that right? It doesn't really exsist, it's just a story parents tell their children when they're younger." She said, nodding briefly, keeping a straight face as she did so.

She couldn't help but smirk a little bit and shrug her shoulders. "Perfect then. I'm sure you will blow them away on stage." She said, nodding curtly. She wasn't trying to be nosey or pushy, but from his audition she knew there was something there. People didn't act well if they didn't have some kind of fire for it. She discovered hers when she was really young. She prefered musicals, but Shakespear was good too. However, her flirtation seemed to be working. Adam didn't seem to know what to say, and that made a small smirk cross her lips. Two can play at this game. She thought to herself at his next comment. She moved away from him a little bit and brushed a strand of hair behind her hair. She couldn't help but feel that tinge of rejection. "Uh. Yeah. Good point, Rizzo." She said, clearing her throat and opening up her script. "Let's start here then." She said, acting like the moment that just happened - hadn't happened. It was easier said than done as she started reading her monolouge.

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[ADAM EVAN RIZZO]

Adam smiled, probably more than even he himself realized, but he was not a naturally bright and smiling person. There were a lot of things in his life he felt bitter about, things that made him angry, people that caused him to try and retain a sturdy wall that seemed impenetrable. Opening up was not easy for someone like him. Even his best friend hardly witnessed his moments of weakness and they had known one another for quite a long time. He tugged at her lip playfully when she pouted and finally offered a smirk. "Nope, never. And if it ever looks like it's going to wind up a bad idea, it's probably because someone else fucked it up." He could easily chalk it up to the fact that other people existed and had the tendency to make mistakes, though even he knew that if his idea went awry it would be on his shoulders. He shrugged. "If you say so. I guess I can handle it if they avoid those stupid kissing in the rain scenes." Adam waggled his finger at her and then dropped it in his lap. That was incredibly cliche, he thought, and could probably put aside his dislike of mushy romances if they dodged the rain kiss. At least temporarily. "I just think they could put their money into better stuff." Like more action movies. Those were the best genre in his opinion.

"Angry sex? I don't even know if that exists. Make-up sex maybe but angry sex sounds more like rape." That was the first thing that popped into Adam's mind, at least. How would he know though? His experiences were minimal and anything else he learned from magazines (that Molly and Asher did not know he had), movies, and TV shows. Some of those media sources were so skewed that most people could not determine what was right or wrong. His eyebrows rose upward. "Oh, kinda like Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy," He nodded a little. "They tell you they're real and then the one time you finally get curious...bam! All of your childhood beliefs are gone." He remembered the time he found out Santa wasn't real, and it was actually Collin's fault. If he had refrained from arguing with Molly and kept their voices down Adam probably would have remained none the wiser. Oh well; the boy was bound to find out sooner or later.

Adam's lips dipped into a frown once more and the expression on his face remained stolid even after she offered him the complement. Anger was not so easy to quell, especially when one was still young and learning to cope with the sudden onsets of rage or irrational frustration. "Whatever." He huffed. It still stunned him when Madeline did not react with anger or snap. How did he manage to make friends with people who allowed most of his attitude to roll off their shoulders? At least she didn't push for the kiss just yet. Adam needed a moment to get into character so it would not be as awkward. "We've already established my ideas are flawless, Maddie. Remember?" The Fire pointed out flatly before also opening his script. He followed her lead and waited until she was done speaking to offer up his portion of the dialogue. The more he went on, a certain level of comfort started to develop and soon he found himself completely encompassed in his words. By the time the kissing scene appeared on the page Adam was not even remotely apprehensive. He looked up at her from the script in his lap, leaned forward (using one hand on the bed for support) and cupped her cheek in his hand. His eyes only searched hers for a moment before pressing his lips to hers. It was not supposed to be deep or long winded. When he pulled back, however, it was only for a second before he allowed himself to kiss her again. This time he allowed it to linger. Adam just wondered what Madeline would do now. It was not part of the script but he simply could not help himself.